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fout still his Panchasika has much .of genuine feeling, poetic fancy and musical harmony. u Really beautiful passages occur in every canto. One of the most touching is the description of Ahavamalla's death. Biihana's verse is musical and flowing and his language simple. Hf professes to write in the Vai-
Kshemendra is known to have flourished in Kashmir under the patronage of King Ananta. He was a Saivate in his •earlier years until he was converted into a Vaishnava Bhaga-vata by the instructions of Somacharya. He underwent his rpoetic. studies under the famous Abhinavagupta. His Samaya-matrika, a poem describing the arts and tricks of women, on the plan of Kuttinimatam, gives the date of its composition as the 25th year of the Kashmirian cycle in 1050 A. D. His Chitra-'•*- bharata is a drama obviously based on the wonders of the i -Greafr War. Lavanyavati and Muktavali are known to be short poems. Dasavatara-ckarita describes the story of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Chaturvargasangraha\§ a concise •exposition of the whole dictum -ofjjie four great motives of human activity. Besides his work was one of epitomes of more voluminous books. His Bharatamanjari summarises in easy poetry the eighteen parvams of Vyasa's work, .thereby indicating to us that at his time the Mahabharata had a form similar to that we have to-day. So does his Ramayana manjaru Bnkatkathamanjari translates into Sanskrit poetry the original of Gunadhya's, supposed to have been written in the Paisachi language. His summaries are clearly woven and even the minor incidents of the original have at least an indirect reference. His language does not display much of the later J poetic decay and his poetry does in many instances resemble that of Bilhana.nt royaldin's Kavyadarsa. , ^exactly in most of their minute particulars. Of course it must be admitted that their present form. Quite the, ^